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A readers' poll in top Spanish sports paper Marca voted Luka Modric as the worst La Liga signing of 2012, after the midfielder's less than impressive form since joining Real Madrid from Spurs for £33m in the summer. The Croatian has struggled to hold down a place in the fiercely competitive Madrid line-up and it looks like Modric could become the latest star player to struggle after joining the European giants. Meanwhile, Liverpool's Madrid loanee Nuri Sahin - touted as one of Europe's top young players before he joined Real from Dortmund - is now being ushered towards the Anfield exit door, which illustrates his alarming decline since heading for the Spanish capital.

With Gareth Bale likely to be Madrid's next big target, the Welshman would be wise to think twice before jumping at the chance to join the nine times European champions, because for every Galactico there is seemingly a gigantic flop, as talkSPORT recalls...

Name: Javier SaviolaPosition: Striker
Before Lionel Messi became the king of Argentinian football, there was Javier Saviola. It's hard to imagine now, but Saviola was once dubbed 'the next Maradona' and, after making a move to Barcelona from River Plate in 2001, as Maradona had moved to the Nou Camp from Boca in the early '80s, had a chance to fulfil that prophecy. Saviola's time at the Nou Camp was inconsistent, but he still maintained an excellent goals-to-game ration in the Blaugrana shirt, so much so that Real Madrid - fresh from winning the title - swooped on their rivals in 2007 to sign the striker. It proved to be a terrible move, with the Argentinian barely kicking a ball and only managing five goals in two seasons before being transferred to Benfica. Though now producing decent displays at Malaga, at the age of 31, Saviola wasted his prime years at Madrid warming the bench, going from the next Maradona to the latest Madrid disappointment.

Name: Klaas-Jan HuntelaarPosition: Striker
Much like their current predicament, Real Madrid were struggling to keep up with a rampant Barcelona side in the 2008/09 season, and the solution they opted for was to bring in prolific young Ajax striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for a sizeable fee in an attempt to turn the campaign around. The Dutchman performed well, scoring eight goals in 13 starts to help Madrid close the gap on Barcelona, but despite his efforts, an inexplicable mass exodus of Madrid's talented Dutch contingent saw him leave the following summer after only half a season. Not for the first time, Florentino Perez showed his capacity to be merciless, but the expensive signings of Kaka and Ronaldo in the summer of 2009 failed to change the destination of the title in the next campaign.

Name:Arjen RobbenPosition: Winger
Former Chelsea man Arjen Robben initially settled well into Madrid's team after his move to the Spanish giants in 2007, turning into a key player through his pace, trickery, goals and assists and helping the club win the 2008 title. Despite this, Florentino Perez decided the prospect of a Ronaldo/Robben partnership on both wings wasn't worth unleashing and flogged the Dutchman to Bayern Munich in 2009. Robben says he wanted to stay, and that Madrid forced him out of the door, threatening to leave him unregistered and therefore without football in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup, which in hindsight would have proven disastrous for the winger, as he ultimately went on to play in the final that summer. Earlier in 2010, Madrid had to watch as Robben strode out for the Champions League final at the Bernabeu with his Bayern team-mates and the Dutch attacker came back to haunt his old club again when Bayern knocked Real out of the Champions League semi-finals in 2012.

Name:Rafael van der VaartPosition: Attacking midfielder
Another talented Dutchman to join Real Madrid in the late 2000s, Rafael van der Vaart came to the Bernabeu with a big billing from then Madrid president Ramon Calderon, yet was never given much of a chance to stake his claim, reduced to making mostly substitute appearances under a carousel of managerial changes. Surprisingly, he survived the cull which saw Robben, Huntelaar and Sneijder leave in 2009, but the following season was out of the team even more often than in the previous one, and was sold to Tottenham in 2010. Along with Modric, if anyone could tell Bale about the pitfalls of life in Madrid, it's Van Der Vaart.

Name:Wesley SneijderPosition: Attacking midfielder
Yet another Dutchman to claim he was mistreated at the Bernabeu, Wesley Sneijder pulled the strings in a league triumph during his first season at Madrid, but that wasn't enough to see him enjoy an extended stay. Injuries and managerial changes didn't help his cause the following season, but few would have expected Madrid to toss him aside as they did in the summer of 2009. Sneijder said that Madrid "treated me very badly", adding that "what happened with me was a very strange thing. The boss told me he had faith on me, but there are people in the club who don't". Real's loss was Inter's gain, as Sneijder lifted the Champions League trophy at the Bernabeu with Inter the following season, while the Spanish champions' wait for European Cup no.10 goes on.

Do you agree? Would joining Real Madrid be a risky move for Gareth Bale? Leave a comment below and let us know...